Temple football: Predicting the defensive depth chart

During the 2013 season, the Temple football team struggled on the defensive side of the ball. From games that were in reach for the Owls, but were lost due to poor coverage, or just a lack of pressure on the opposing offense, Temple needs to erase last year from their memory banks and move on.

Though I don’t see any big shakeups in this year’s depth chart, fans can look forward to better leadership out of the defensive core as well as more experience together, to hopefully make the 2014 season better than last year.

DEFENSIVE LINE

Sharif Finch (SO)

Brandon Chudnoff (R-JR)

Hershey Walton (R-JR)

Matt Ioannidis (JR)

Temple will once again have a young defensive line this season. Due to injuries last season many of these young guys were able to get their start. The leader of the defensive line is going to have to be Ioannidis. He was tied with Nate Smith for most sacks last season with 3. If he can get more pressure on the quarterback and help the young core around him the defensive line has nowhere to go but up.

LINEBACKERS

MLB: Nate D. Smith (R-JR)

Jarred Alwan (SO)

SLB: Stephaun Marshall (R-SO)

Michael Felton (JR)

WLB: Tyler Matakevich (JR)

Rob Dvoracek (JR)

The outright leader of this football team is Tyler Matakevich. His leadership on the field, on the sidelines and even off the field are, bar none the best on the team. Matakevich led not just the Owls but also the NCAA with 8.8 solo tackles per game.

Nate D. Smith is another star for the linebacker group. He notched 3 sacks which tied him for the first on the team. There is no doubt that if the Owls want to get better production out of their defense they are going to have to apply more pressure to the opposing quarterback. If Matakevich and Smith are able to do that for the linebackers it will only help Temple as the season progresses.

CORNER

LCB: Tavon Young (JR)

Jahed Thomas (SO)

RCB: Anthony Robey (R-SR)

Boye Aromire (R-JR)

The problem that Temple had at the corner, and even the safety position is that they were too small. Tall wide receivers had no problem getting past the corners for big plays down the field. Anthony Robey, who some would argue to be the leader out of the corners stands only at 5-10. It is a tough test going up against 6-3 wide receivers week in and week out with height like that. But Robey’s height never stopped him from being the best he can be and though he doesn’t have flashy stats he has consistently been good for the Owls and will look to finish his career at Temple with a winning season.

SAFTEY

FS: Alex Wells (JR)

Shahid Lovett (JR)

SS: Brett Pierce (R-SR)

Jihaad Pretlow (SO)

Alex Wells, who will be coming into a new system at Temple, will have to make a quick adjustment to help out the young safeties in this secondary. The secondary for Temple last year was very lackluster and hopefully a big year from this unit, combined with success from the corners can help to solidify Temple’s place in the American Athletic Conference.